once more in the absence of —— i send you a word of brotherly greeting. i would ask you to read it impersonally in every part, as i have no reserved thoughts and no ulterior aim in it, and have not had any letters or news from anyone to lead me to write. we are so far away from each other that now and then such a greeting is well, and should be taken in the spirit it is sent. it is not possible to send to any14 other household as none other exists in the society, you being unique in this, that you are the only one. here we have no such thing, all nearly living at other places, and this being merely a centre for work.
many times have co-operative households been tried and failed. one was tried here and is famous. it was called the brook farm, but it had no such high aim and philosophy behind it as you have, and thus the personal frictions developed at any place of close intimacy broke it up. that should be a guide to you to enable you to watch and avoid. yours may alter in number and in personnel, but can never really be broken up if the aim is high and the self-judgment is strict and not self-righteous. i am not accusing you of this, but only stating a common human danger, from which the theosophist is not at any time exempt. indeed, he is in danger in your centre from the fact that strong force revolves around it. hence all must be ever careful, for the personal element is one that ever has a tendency to delude us as it hides behind various walls and clothes itself in the faults, real or imaginary, of others.
your centre being the only one as yet of such size, it is useful to think how you may best all act as to make it truly international. each one has a right to his or her particular "crank," of course, but no one ought to think that anyone else is to be judged from not being of the same stripe of "crank." one eats meat, another does not. neither is universally right, for the kingdom of heaven does not come from meat, or from its absence. another smokes and another does not; these are neither universally right nor wrong, as smoke for one is good and for another is bad; the true cosmopolitan allows each to do in such matters as he likes. essentials are the only things on which true occultism and theosophy require an agreement, and such temporary matters as food and other habitual daily things are not15 essentials. one may make a mistake, too, of parading too much his or her particular line of life or act. when this is done the whole world is bored, and nothing effective or lasting is gained except a cranky impression.
in a place like yours, where so many of all sorts of nature are together, there is a unique opportunity for gain and good in the chance it gives one for self-discipline. there friction of personality is inevitable, and if each one learns the great "give and take," and looks not for the faults of the others but for the faults he sees in himself, because of the friction, then great progress can be made. the masters have said that the great step is to learn how to get out of the rut each one has by nature and by training, and to fill up the old grooves. this has been misconstrued by some who have applied it to mere outer habits of life, and forgotten that its real application is to the mental grooves and the astral ones also. each mind has a groove, and is not naturally willing to run in the natural groove of another mind. hence comes often friction and wrangle. illustrate it by the flanged wheel of the steam-engine running on a track. it cannot run off nor on a track of broader or narrower gauge, and so is confined to one. take off the flange and make the face of the wheel broader, and then it can run on any road that is at all possible. general human nature is like the engine, it is flanged and run for a certain size of track, but the occultist or the would-be one should take off the flange and have a broad-faced wheel that will accommodate itself to the other mind and nature. thus in one life even we might have the benefit of many, for the lives of other men are lived beside us unnoticed and unused because we are too broad and flanged in wheel, or too narrow and flanged also. this is not easy, it is true, to change, but there is no better opportunity than is hourly presented to you in the whole world, to make the alteration. i would gladly have16 such a chance, which karma has denied me, and i see the loss i incur each day by not having it there or here. you have it, and from there should go out to all the earth soon or late, men and women who are broad and free and strong for the work of helping the world. my reminding you of all this is not a criticism, but is due to my own want of such an opportunity, and being at a distance i can get a clearer view of the case, and what you have for your own benefit and also for all others.
it is natural for one to ask: "what of the future, and what of the defined object, if any, for our work?" that can be answered in many ways.
there is, first, our own work, in and on ourselves, each one. that has for its object the enlightenment of oneself for the good of others. if that is pursued selfishly some enlightenment comes, but not the amount needed for the whole work. we have to watch ourselves so as to make of each a centre from which, in our measure, may flow out the potentialities for good that from the adept come in large and affluent streams. the future then, for each, will come from each present moment. as we use the moment so we shift the future up or down for good or ill; for the future being only a word for the present—not yet come—we have to see to the present more than all. if the present is full of doubt or vacillation, so will be the future; if full of confidence, calmness, hope, courage and intelligence, thus also will be the future.
as to the broader scope of the work, that comes from united effort of the whole mass of units. it embraces the race, and as we cannot escape from the destiny of the race we have to dismiss doubt and continue at work. the race is, as a whole, in a transition state, and many of its units are kept back by the condition of the whole. we find the path difficult because, being of the race, the general race tendencies very strongly affect us. this we cannot do away with in a moment.17 it is useless to groan over it; it is also selfish, since we, in the distant past, had a hand in making it what it now is. the only way we can alter it is by such action now as makes of each one a centre for good, a force that makes "for righteousness," and that is guided by wisdom. from the great power of the general badness we each one have a greater fight to wage the moment we force our inner nature up beyond the dead level of the world. so before we attempt that forcing we should, on the lower plane, accumulate all that we can of merit by unselfish acts, by kind thoughts, by detaching our minds from the allurements of the world. this will not throw us out of the world, but will make us free from the great force which is called by b?hme the "turba," by which he meant the immense power of the unconscious and material basis of our nature. that material base being devoid of soul is more inclined on this plane to the lower things of life than to the higher.
hence, until we have in some degree conquered that, it is useless for us to be wishing, as so many of us do, to see the masters and to be with them. they could not help us unless we furnish the conditions, and a mere desire is not the needed condition. the new condition calls for a change in thought and nature.
so the masters have said this is a transition age, and he who has ears to hear will hear what has thus been said. we are working for the new cycles and centuries. what we do now in this transition age will be like what the great dhyan chohans did in the transition point—the midway point—in evolution at the time when all matter and all types were in a transition and fluid state. they then gave the new impulse for the new types, which resulted later in the vast varieties of nature. in the mental development we are now at the same point and what we now do in faith and hope for others and for ourselves will result similarly on the plane to which it is all directed. thus in other centuries we will come18 out again and go on with it. if we neglect it now, so much the worse for us then. hence we are not working for some definite organisation of the new years to come, but for a change in the manas and buddhi of the race. that is why it may seem indefinite, but it is, nevertheless, very defined and very great in scope. let me refer you to that part of the secret doctrine, penned by master himself, where the midway point of evolution is explained in reference to the ungulate mammals. it should give you a glimpse of what we have to do, and remove all vain longings for a present sojourn with our unseen guides and brothers. the world is not free from superstition, and we, a part of it, must have some traces left of the same thing. they have said that a great shadow follows all innovations in the life of humanity; the wise one will not bring on that shadow too soon and not until some light is ready to fall at the same time for breaking up the darkness.
masters could give now all the light and knowledge needed, but there is too much darkness that would swallow up all the light, except for a few bright souls, and then a greater darkness would come on. many of us could not grasp nor understand all that might be given, and to us would result a danger and new difficulty for other lives, to be worked out in pain and sorrow. it is from kindness and love that masters do not blind us with the electric flash of truth complete.
but concretely there is a certain object for our general work. it is to start up a new force, a new current in the world, whereby great and long-gone gnanis, or wise ones, will be attracted back to incarnate among men here and there, and thus bring back the true life and the true practices. just now a pall of darkness is over all that no gnani will be attracted by. here and there a few beams strike through this. even in india it is dark, for there, where the truth is hid, the thick veil of theological dogma hides all; and though there19 is a great hope in it the masters cannot pierce through to minds below. we have to educate the west so that it may appreciate the possibilities of the east, and thus on the waiting structure in the east may be built up a new order of things for the benefit of the whole. we have, each one of us, to make ourselves a centre of light; a picture gallery from which shall be projected on the astral light such scenes, such influences, such thoughts, as may influence many for good, shall thus arouse a new current, and then finally result in drawing back the great and the good from other spheres from beyond the earth. this is not spiritualism at all, for it has no reference to the denizens of spook-land in any way.
let us then have great faith and confidence. see how many have gone out from time to time from your centre to many and distant parts of the world, and how many will continue to go for the good and the gain of man of all places. they have gone to all parts, and it must be that even if the centre should be disrupted from causes outside of you, its power and reality will not be destroyed at all, but will ever remain, even after all of it may have gone as far as bricks and mortar are concerned.
i give you my best wishes and brotherly greeting for the new year and for every year that is to come.
affectionately yours,
william q. judge.
